InsideLotus - Lotus, Portal and Social Collaborative Software

Great article published today on developerWorks about database quota's. The article reviews how the implementation of mail quotas can significantly enhance the administration team's ability to control the size of mail databases--a vital function of managing an IBM Lotus Domino environment.

Lets bring the debate to Lotus customers. I'm not just talking about the large Lotus blogging community, but really looking for feedback on a strategic direction IBM should get involved in around syndication. The two most common methods to syndicate information are RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0. While it is perfectly acceptable to use both of these methods, the past technologies will tell us that eventually one of these methods will prevail and be the standard. Whatever method is chosen, is usually based on the more advanced technology that has the ability to expand and grow as Web 2.0 evolves and continue growth into the 3rd generation of the internet.

While RSS is more commonly known and used by internet sites today, the code has been frozen so there does not seem to be growth within this syndication method. Some people view that as a weakness while other agree in freezing the code so that it does not become a complicated technology. On the other hand you have Atom. Another method of syndication that is designed to expand with technology. As Atom expands, so will it's complexity which may turn the avid user away from Atom and use a more simple method such as RSS.

IBM support and development teams have been working on content for Sametime 7.5 for months and there are over 130 new Sametime 7.5 technotes. New technotes are being authored every day and posted on the support site so make sure you are getting updates via the support feeds. A few of the more important technotes are listed here:

Deploying Sametime 7.0 Connect for browsers on a Sametime 7.5 server (#1243158)Sametime Administrator needs to be in LDAP for policies to work (#1243942)How to determine the version numbers of the Sametime 7.5 plugins (#1244125)Migrating privacy data after upgrading to Sametime 7.5 (#1242317)Sametime: Domino language pack unavailable for some supported languages (#1242066)

If Adam says so, then it must be true. Sametime 7.5 is now available to the general public. I was expecting to see it go public next week but this is a nice surprise. In case you have missed it, I have been running a weekly blog every Sunday on a new Sametime 7.5 feature while it went through beta. So this week, Sunday comes early as I post my last "Sametime Sunday."

A Sametime Administrator using Administration pages defines a set of mandatory policy attributes, which are assigned to all of Sametime users by default. In order to allow the different permission's for some users and groups, the administrator is able to generate the number of sets holding the same policy attributes with different values and to assign them to the Sametime users and public groups. A policy attribute values of a user policy can be inherited from the default policy attribute value. On the other hand, a default policy attribute value can override the settings of the same policy attribute value in all the user policies.Sametime administrators have the ability to enable polices for community servers. This section included settings that affect instant messaging and instant meetings.

This policy section includes setting that only affect instant messaging.

This policy section includes setting that only affect instant meetings.

Alright, the time has come for abstracts for the next Lotusphere. Submit your session topics, register, and make your plans to attend what is going to be a very exciting conference. Register today for a discount.

Last week, International Data Corporation (IDC) ranked IBM WebSsphere Portal as the number one portal software based on software license and maintenance revenue. I was tempted to write up another award winning thank you speach from Portal, but just don't have the time right now. Portals are now a foundation for delivery collaboration, composite applications, content, and much more from virtually any back-end system. What make IBM WebSphere Portal stand out from the rest is it's ability to evolve with the rapid growth of technology and provide the front end of SOA.

The following contains information about the future direction of IBM products, but it not a commitment that IBM will deliver specific features or capabilities, or that IBM will deliver any product releases at all. Future product direction, dates, features or capabilities can change at any time without notice. The screen shots in the blog represent non-production build and the UI is subject to change.

Just a matter of days until Sametime 7.5 is released and this weeks Sametime Sunday is about automatic updates. The Sametime 7.5 client has a preference to automatically check for new updates to the client or plugins. This is a very powerful feature as the many customers have trouble staying updated with the latest technology because rolling out applications to desktops seem to take the longest. Now Sametime Admins can easily push out updated downloads and allow the users choose how they want to be notified and downloaded.

I'm about to go on vacation for a couple of weeks up to the Maine coast. As soon as you get there, every bit of stress leaves the body - it's very nice! Plus, the place where we stay has a phone, but no high speed internet access, and a 10 inch TV with no cable - cell phone reception depends on the wind, I think. It's good to unwind and 2 weeks gives you the first week to unwind and the second week to just enjoy doing nothing except reading and biking. I have a few trashy mysteries in mind, a leadership book that my previous manager gave me, Hawking's A Brief(er) History of Time, and Saturday, by Ian McEwan (recommended by my wife). That, and my guitar will keep me busy enough.

When I return, it's off to the Advisor conference in Phoenix and a visit with the family there. (Not to mention a few stops to TeePee Tap Room, my favorite Mexican restaurant since I was in grade school. And believe me, the place has not changed since then.) Maureen and I will be unveiling even more information about Workplace Designer "Next", with lots of working demos - yippee!! (or so she tells me - hee hee. I did install portal 6 in prep for this, but I'm waiting until I get back to throw on a recent build of Designer.) I wonder if she'll defy me and show the puppy demos again??? :)

On the new job front, it's been very busy getting the designs done for Hannover. Lots of re-design happening, usability tests, customer councils, etc, etc. It is very interesting changing something that has been in market for so long and has such a following, but we are trying to put ourselves in the user's shoes as much as possible and change the things in the UI that cause confusion. The mantra has been to simplify, simplify, and Mary Beth's blog points out some interesting things that alot of people don't even know are there. The one that got me the other day was the Edit Quote Selection menu item. I had really never seen it that I can recall, and apparently neither had a lot of other folks! It just points out the challenge of looking at the product with fresh eyes, which Mary Beth and the rest of the designers are doing. Sometimes there are technical challenges to changing things because of the intersection of templates and menu items from the "core" product, along with Notes dual-life as email client and application platform. In the end, I think our users will be much happier, even if they have to go thru a brief re-learning curve.

The following contains information about the future direction of IBM products, but it not a commitment that IBM will deliver specific features or capabilities, or that IBM will deliver any product releases at all. Future product direction, dates, features or capabilities can change at any time without notice. The screen shots in the blog represent non-production build and the UI is subject to change.

It's getting close to the final release of Sametime 7.5. This weeks Sametime Sunday is about new and improved notification options in the client. Alerts are nothing new in Sametime, but there is more focus on setting up alerts as well as how users want to be notified. The Sametime 7.5 client has a new preference where you know have the ability to specify the notification window and make it as visual as you want.

Through the preferences, you also have the ability to specify event settings. It is now much easier to view how you want to be notified of events such as chats, invitations, announcements, phone conferences, etc. The notification options include bringing to front, flashing on the taskbar, and playing a sound of your choice.

Speaking of which, a long time ago I lost a battle to change our terminology from "database" to "application". Do you think users (not seasoned Domino developers, but newer ones are ok) understand they are making a database or an application?

IBM took another step in the right direction and ahead of the competition by acquiring Webify Solutions. The acquisition will allow IBM to continue building SOA solutions at a more rapid pace to keep up with growing business demands. The addition of Webify will be a key driver for IBM's overall SOA growth and result in greater efficiencies, cost savings and productivity for our clients.

SOA is undoubtedly spreading throughout all industries as a standard IT architectural model. SOA help align the IT organization with companies strategic goals. The focus is not to be limited by the IT solutions, but to be able to extend current IT solutions and assets to allow growth in an on-demand market. SOA can be achieved with products such as Lotus Domino, Lotus Sametime, and WebSphere Portal just to name a few. IBM is hosting some SOA Live events around the world to help show the real world benefit.

Here's a little tease for the upcoming Workplace Designer release, as we work to expand its capabilities. There are some really nice features in here that I don't have time to fully explain yet, but this will give you an idea:Pages - first of all, we decided to rename "Form" to "Page" for 2 reasons: 1) It's more than a form! You can have views on the page and so on. 2) we have another product that does forms, Workplace Forms. So, to avoid confusion, Designer calls its "thingies": pages. (These are also JSF pages underneath the covers, but you don't have to know that unless you want to.)Custom Controls - These are re-usable pieces of code - like a subform in Domino-speak. The custom controls will show up on your Palette, too.XML Document Data - that's the Designer XML storage on top of a relational db of your choice. We do a lot of things here to make like easier when working with XML documents. This is what the main doc api goes against.External Data - that is, data that isn't in the XML Doc store, including RDBMS and Domino connectors. Plus, the Web Service layer. The query editor is nice, too, and what you would expect based on other tools you've worked with. The beauty of what we are doing here is to make these data connections easily appear and bind to UI controls on a page.Resources - shared stuff.Composite Application - these all relate to integrating with the portal templating and portlet infrastructure. Actions and properties are new in this release.

As many of you already know, spam is a hobby of mine. I have published articles and contributed to books on the topic as well as some blog entries. I am looking to gather some feedback and your experiences with spam email will be beneficial to me in my current research project on the impact spam email has on peoples use of the computer. The goal of this study is to help identify email trends and how users are affected by spammers. This study will conclude with recommendations on methods to prevent spam. Please follow the URL below to complete this 11 question survey.